by Sam Amick, Fred Katz, and Joe Vardon

But when it came to Taylor Jenkins and his future in “Grind City,” the writing was on the wall last summer. And it was written in tears.

In early July, three months after a disastrous, injury-riddled 27-55 season had come to an end, the Grizzlies front office, led by executive vice president of basketball operations Zach Kleiman, made the unilateral choice to swap out five members of Jenkins’ coaching staff.

While Jenkins consulted with the front-office on the hires for six replacements to his staff, those final interactions between Jenkins and the assistants he was forced to fire, league sources say, would set an uneasy tone for the season to come. As some close to the Grizzlies saw the situation, it was only a matter of time before Jenkins would be gone, too.

Former assistant Tuomas Iisalo, whom the Grizzlies hired before this season, will take over as interim head coach, the team announced. He and fellow newcomer assistant Nate LaRoche were driving forces behind Memphis implementing a renovated, motion offense this season, which lifted the Grizzlies to sixth in points per possession, an adjustment the front office encouraged. On Friday, Memphis also fired LaRoche, as well as Patrick St. Andrews, another assistant hired before the season, a league source confirmed. In the end, it’s clear Jenkins’ diminished organizational support coupled with the Grizzlies’ decline over the past two months did him in.

In large part because of its first-year assistants, Memphis has revamped an offense that formerly struggled in the halfcourt. Once reliant on pick-and-rolls, it now leans on clever cutting and off-ball movement. The Grizzlies set fewer screens than any other NBA team. This philosophical shift was a point of contention as this season progressed.

League sources say Morant, in particular, was upset that last summer the team let go of one assistant with whom he was particularly close, Ahearn, who worked with the two-time All-Star more than anyone on staff. This season, Morant worked most commonly with LaRoche, a former trainer with individual players who was in his first season as an NBA assistant and, like Iisalo, played a pivotal part in implementing the new offensive system.

Morant played his entire career for Jenkins and remained supportive of the coach up to the end, a league source said. Morant did not, however, like the new offense. He has played in just 43 games this season, missing this most recent stretch because of a hamstring injury while also dealing with right shoulder soreness. But when he’s been on the court, according to a league source, Morant has complained about the new scheme, which takes the ball out of his hands and removes the screens he likes to use as a ball handler to make plays.

One league source who has seen Morant work out with the Grizzlies recently said, “Some days he looks like he’s ready to play, and some days he looks like he doesn’t want to be there … because he hates the offense.”

Jenkins had begun to reinstall some of the plays Morant likes, a league source said, reimplementing the pick-and-roll and other plays involving screens Morant could use to break free. If doing so angered Kleiman and played a role in Jenkins’ firing, one could understand, but LaRoche was the driving force behind the Grizzlies going away from ball screens to begin with — and he’s gone too.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6239543/2025/03/28/why-did-taylor-jenkins-get-fired-grizzlies/

25 comments

  3. So basically it’s Ja Morant’s fault.

    Him being out last season sunk them because the offense so heavily relied on him and he was serving a suspension/got injured shortly after said suspension was served

    Huge shakeup for the coaching staff

    Jenkins tries to implement a new system because Ja can’t be relied up to stay on the court

    Ja hated the new system that was created as a result of his unreliability and was not hiding his dislike of said system

  4. Reading between the lines, my question is I wonder if Jenkins was also at odds with the new coaches/new scheme? Seems like Kleiman and the new coaches have a very specific vision of the offense in Memphis, which we know now Ja did not like, and we also know that Ja and Jenkins (allegedly) have always been supportive of one another. Still feels like there’s a piece of this we’re missing.

  5. The Grizzlies are not a true championship contender, regardless if Ja plays or not.

    If the FO acknowledged this and decided that it’s the coach that needed to change, then I applaude them for taking actions immediately and ripping the band-aid, as opposed to waiting too long which is very common in many organizations.
    After all, what difference does it make if you’re a second round exit with Jenkins, and then fire him in the summer, or a first round exit with an interim coach? At least this firing gives the FO the time to evaluate Iisalo as a head coach, and decide if they wanna promote him next season or not. Firing Jenkins in the summer would leave no “trial period” for Iisalo.

  6. So they hired Laroche this summer who played a big part in implementing their new more efficient offense, then fired him along with Jenkins? Why?

  8. Hmm OK….

    What team do you guys think Ja ends up on if he asks out?? I say Kings or Nets

  10. None of that is a compelling reason to fire your HC with 9 games left, when you are sitting in 4th place.

    The front office got butthurt the HC was adding in some plays to keep it’s only Star player happy. That can’t really be it. That makes the front office come off like overbearing fools.

  11. I like to think that grizzlies GM is a lurker here and saw the post a day ago about this highlight package breaking down how coach doesn’t do shit to win tight games down the stretch https://youtu.be/1FPBgmL89PE?si=2hXTNB6gqzlhFOzo

  12. My question in all of this is why draft Edey and then immediately take a big organizational step away from p&r centric offense. Ja and Edey fit great in a spread p&r system and horribly with where the team seems to be going, so why draft Edey so recently?

  15. >*Grizzlies front office, led by executive vice president of basketball operations Zach Kleiman, made the unilateral choice to swap out five members of Jenkins’ coaching staff*

    That’s just professional malpractice by the front office. You don’t fire nearly someone’s entire staff without firing them. This will never end in any other outcome than the coach going as well—just with time wasted and relationships strained.

  17. Does anyone else object to the articles use of “screens” to refer specifically to pnr and on-ball screens? Motion offense has a ton of off-ball screens.

  19. Can I just say how cool it is that this news making us talk about other team’s assistant coaches? I normally cant name any other team’s assistant coaches and now people are seeing how important they are to a teams schemes

  20. Just want to clarify, the new HC, IIsalo loves PnR. The current offense they are running is not his but laroche, the dude they’ve fired along with jenkins lol

  21. It sounds to me like the Grizzlies Front Office wanted to fire Jenkins and were waiting for the first semi-valid reason to do so

  23. They basically blamed him for Morant getting suspended and then tearing his labarm and then everyone else but JJJ getting hurt.

    Then this season with them trying to undermined him he gets them to top 3 in the West.

  25. Sounds like Ja’s days in Memphis are numbered, the FO wants to go in a specific direction with playing style and will cut anyone who is not a fit.

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